​Fired Up Fridays: protestors persist for months

By Alicia Underlee Nelson

alicia@hpr1.com

The silvery trills of a trumpet duet announce the Friday afternoon protest outside the downtown Fargo Post Office long before it comes into view. Nearly 70 protestors are lined up along the sidewalk in a neat row. Their signs, chants and clothing voice support for federal workers, immigrants, the people of Ukraine and Palestine and their LGBTQIA+ neighbors. They call for the preservation of women’s rights and civil liberties and the continuation of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits. Cars honk. The crowd cheers. Folks chat and tap their toes to the music as they exercise their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble on this sunny afternoon.

That particular assembly was held on April 11, 2025. It wasn’t the first Fired Up Fridays protest. And it certainly wasn’t the last. A dedicated group has gathered every Friday at 4:30 p.m. for nearly eight months, welcoming new participants and new causes along the way.

The location for weekly Fired Up Fridays gatherings shifts between Fargo and Moorhead to accommodate residents on both sides of the Red River. This October and November, the protests are being held above the river along Veterans Memorial Bridge, which connects the cities.

These weekly assemblies were sparked by attempts to connect with elected officials. When that effort failed, the Fired Up Fridays protests were born.

“They started out as a reaction to Representative Fischbach and Senator Cramer's comments about us,” explained co-organizer Lyn Dockter-Pinnick, a Moorhead resident. “We did the first one kind of organically, because we were visiting Representative Fischbach’s office. And then Representative Fischbach called us garbage and said that we were paid protesters. Senator Cramer said that we were just out here having fun.”

It all began when U.S. Representative Michelle Fischbach gave a radio interview on The Flag on February 27, 2025. Rep. Fischbach, a Republican, represents Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District. It’s the state’s largest district and includes most of western Minnesota, including Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Moorhead and Willmar.

“I got protesters at my offices now in the district and I’m sure someone is financing that garbage,” Rep. Fischbach told radio host Scott Hennen in the interview. “And when the paper reports on it, I want them to ask them where they’re from, because I’m betting money they’re not from the 7th District.”

A small group gathered outside Rep. Fischbach’s office at 2513 8th Street S. in Moorhead the very next day. A reporter noted that all of the protesters present were residents of Minnesota’s 7th District in a story published in The Forum on February 28, 2025. Some had previously visited with Rep. Fischbach’s staff at the Moorhead office in the days before the radio interview.

That gathering in Moorhead on February 28 was the first of many Fired Up Fridays events. These protests, along with other rallies in the region, captured the attention of U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer.

“There’s no question that the Indivisible group in Moorhead and Fargo, they’ve been very, very active,” Senator Cramer told the North Dakota Monitor in a March 18, 2025 article. “Those are people that protest for fun. That’s what they do and not for any of the things that Donald Trump ran, and won on.”

Fired Up Fridays participants quickly addressed Sen. Cramer’s remarks. Posters insisting participants are not protesting for fun popped up immediately and persisted for weeks after Cramer’s comment. Signs speaking out against President Trump’s policies and remarks have been a consistent presence at the Friday afternoon gatherings since February 28.

High Plains Reader reached out to Rep. Fischbach and Sen. Cramer for comment. No response was received from either official or their press teams.

The number of protestors at Fired Up Friday gatherings varies, hovering around 20 people during quieter weeks and increasing to more than double or triple that number during busy Fridays. Professionals dressed for the office mingle with women wearing T-shirts advocating for gun safety measures and men in camouflage and Carhartt jackets. A white-haired man waves an American flag. An Indigenous woman wearing a beaded hair clip holds a “Water is Life” banner. A VA doctor in bright blue scrubs weaves through the crowd, passing labor union members, veterans and teenagers documenting their very first protests with a photo.

“This is an organic movement on the heart of citizens that are genuinely concerned,” said Dockter-Pinnick. “We really think it's important to exercise our First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble.”

Martha Wheeler agrees. The retired public school teacher from Moorhead organized the initial protest on February 28 and she’s been a regular presence at Fired Up Fridays ever since. Wheeler has spoken out against Trump’s federal spending cuts to public schools and layoffs at the Department of Education and has called for lawmakers to address gun violence in schools.

“I think people need to know they have to stand up, that they can stand up, that it's our right,” Wheeler said. “We have a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We are the people that we need. We need to tell the government what to do.”

Dockter-Pinnick said that this commitment to the will of the people has been central to the Fired Up Fridays movement from the very first gathering. She added that standing up for the right to assemble feels more urgent right now than when the protests began nearly eight months ago.

“I think that when we first started doing this, there were probably fewer issues to be concerned about,” she said. “But as this administration has moved forward, there's been an increasingly grave assault on our First Amendment rights. There's just a much greater level of anxiety on the part of our participants. But that also means that they show up. I think that's an incredible level of commitment.”

Find details about upcoming Fired Up Fridays events at mobilize.us/.